Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics

Shiller had a very bad premonition that if the fish tale was concocted by the Joker, this guy must have organized a big show, and he had to speed things up.

Shiller looked around and walked to the door closest to a window, testing the sturdiness of the doorknob. Finding it satisfactory, he tied the rope to the handle.

His agility value was not low, but he also knew that the Joker had the skill to control dice, so he checked the rope's sturdiness over and over again, even scraping the windowsill near the rope with a kitchen knife to prevent it from being worn through, thus reducing the potential need for dice checks as much as possible.

After making the preparations, Shiller climbed out the window and began descending, holding onto the rope. He was trying to bypass the standoff between Batman and the Joker and see what had happened downstairs.

In his judgment, the Joker was bound to come to the lighthouse, but he arrived later than Shiller had expected, indicating that he might have been up to something along the way. Considering the Joker might have been the first person to reach the lighthouse, Shiller had to be on guard; he had come well prepared for this.

Shiller intentionally avoided all windows to keep the Joker or something else downstairs from seeing him. As he descended, he reflected on everything that had happened at the lighthouse.

First, there were the traps he encountered during exploration on a particular floor, which Shiller thought might have been set by the Lighthouse Guardian. But why would the Lighthouse Guardian set traps? Just to add a little challenge to his life?

The Lighthouse Guardian was killed on the first floor. It wasn't clear who did it. Hoff had traces of a dog attack, but it wasn't necessarily the fatal blow—it could have been the Joker.

In any case, this affair was surrounded by an eerie atmosphere, and Shiller had no leads for the time being. He descended to the ground as quickly as possible. The rope couldn't be untied, so he left it where it was and walked into the lighthouse's main entrance.

The first floor was as before, the bodies of several dogs lay there, their blood long since dried.

Shiller walked into the room where the Lighthouse Guardian's body had been, only to find that the tall, thin man's corpse was gone, although the dogs' bodies were still there.

Shiller instinctively glanced out the window to the right of the corner where the man had been lying and saw the dock through this window. Although quite distant, the lights of the large ship were particularly conspicuous against the blank expanse of snow.

Shiller's ominous premonition grew stronger.

He ran upstairs, only to find that the bodies of the Hoff family had also disappeared. Shiller carefully examined nearby traces, but whoever had been there had cleaned up well, leaving no footprints and no signs of the bodies being moved by the fluids they had emitted.

Could this be another skill for manipulating bodies?

Looking closely, Shiller realized something was wrong. If the bodies had been made to stand up and walk away, they would have left traces. The fact that they had disappeared into thin air meant they had been moved; it's just that the person was skilled at eliminating all traces.

At the end of this floor was a utility room. Shiller went over and indeed found that something was missing—tarps, fire hoses, and mops were all gone.

It seemed that the Joker hadn't arrived too late, but rather too early. In such a short time, he had moved so many bodies and cleaned up all the traces. No wonder he managed to kidnap people from two ships right under Batman's nose.

There were no further traces upstairs. Worried that a fight might break out above and affect him, Shiller headed back downstairs and took the same hole they had originally climbed up through.

To Shiller's surprise, a swath of reeds had disappeared. The traces of burning were still on the ground, but all the living reed leaves were gone, and the lake was empty.

Could the reeds also have been the Joker's doing?

It wasn't impossible; Batman had been seriously wounded there. While the dice took much of the blame, the reeds played a not insignificant role.

Shiller stood by the lake and took a look.

The river and the lake were connected, which meant that the fish rushing in the river would directly enter the lake. Shiller indeed saw the fish jumping from the river into the lake, but they disappeared as soon as they hit the water.

The surface of the lake was pitch black, with nothing visible. Shiller donned night vision goggles but, without getting close enough, he indeed couldn't see what was beneath the surface.

Shiller took a deep breath and cautiously approached the edge of the lake, scooping up some water with his hand. The water wasn't murky, which meant that the lake looked so deep because it was unfathomably so.

Shiller walked half around the lake, and it was at the burnt marks that he finally noticed something. He found that the area must have been burned twice, the last time quite recently.

Had the Joker burned bodies here?

It shouldn't be. Shiller observed the details of the burnt marks closely. It was impossible that animals had been burned here, as there would certainly have been traces of fat left behind.

It turned out to be the cleaning tools that had been burned here.

The bodies were brought here and sunk to the bottom of the lake. What was at the bottom of the lake?

The boat should have docked by now. Shiller calculated the time in his mind, knowing he couldn't wait any longer.

He put on the night vision goggles, took the handgun with only a few bullets left, and jumped into the lake from the shore.

The water in the lake was terrifyingly cold, but the good news was that the night vision goggles were waterproof, allowing a relatively clear view of the inside of the lake.

The lake was too bizarre to be described as merely a lake; rather, it was like a colossal pool of water, with nothing else in sight—not even a blade of reed could be spotted.

Shiller continued to sink downwards, unsure how much deeper it went, but thankfully, the water seemed to be unusual as well, not buoying him up but allowing him to sink endlessly.

As Shiller's mind wandered, contemplating the situation inside the lighthouse, the bloated and horrifying visage of a face suddenly appeared before him.

Shiller jolted, twisting his body to dodge, then realized that he was surrounded by dead bodies, all of which were bound by reed leaves at their feet, floating about two or three meters from the lakebed.

It was the Hoff family, along with the two people from the cabin, Madeline and the Lighthouse Guardian.

At the bottom of the lake, Shiller finally saw a sliver of light, but it was not the glow of a lamp, it was a sickly green luminescence.

He glanced along the light but couldn't make out the details, so he swam upwards, reaching a slightly higher position where he saw a vast Magic Array.

Shiller instantly realized what was happening; he hurriedly swam to the surface, gasping for breath in a somewhat ragged manner as he climbed ashore from the water's edge – he knew he had no time to rest.

He rushed back to the lighthouse as fast as he could and dashed to the room where the Lighthouse Guardian had died, peering out the window.

Docked at the pier were not modern fishing boats but three huge sailing Battleships from the last century.

Shiller took a deep breath and stepped back a few paces.

Now, the game had changed dramatically from a modern supernatural scenario to an Insmouth saga, and Shiller could only pray that the Deep Divers didn't show up.

Wait, could those fish possibly...

Shiller no longer cared much about whether a fight had broken out upstairs. The Joker was indeed a wildcard, unexpectedly bringing in classic Cthulhu elements to what was supposed to be an original story copy. They didn't have corresponding Magic Skills for it, and this was going to be a disaster.

From the moment he knew the village was by the sea, he should have been prepared for this, but he thought there wouldn't be someone among these players who was deeply knowledgeable about the classic Cthulhu mythos. It turned out the Joker had a surprise in store for him.

As the only clergy member in the team, Shiller knew he had to do something; if the Deep Divers landed, the Old Gods would arrive soon, and everyone would die.

Failing the mission wouldn't have been a big deal, but they were the first to take down Greed. If they couldn't complete the mission, Greed would surely go insane.

Shiller considered the resources he currently had in his mind.

With Greed out of the picture, his lab probably couldn't be opened, but the resources he held were crucial if he wanted to prevent the return of the old days.

Old Sirteck was a key figure. Shiller's mind spun rapidly, realizing that finding him was the only way to access all of Greed's devised resources. The problem was that this man was accompanied by a Monster, and without knowing its limitations, any approach could result in instant death.

Greed must have known he was going to die. Yet he provided no clue when this affair was brought up—could he have known he was being schemed against?

But Shiller felt that even if Greed did know he was being played, in a situation that spelt certain defeat, he wouldn't have destroyed all the resources that could have been valuable, there must be a clue somewhere.

Suddenly, Shiller remembered there was a monster in room 1913. Could it be that the two creatures were meant to fight each other to mutual destruction?

But after some thought, Shiller felt it impossible. The Monsters likely wouldn't fight each other directly. And he couldn't take that bet; if they didn't fight, he would have to face the beings aboard those strange ships as well as two terrifying Monsters.

Shiller suddenly wondered, what was the situation in the village now?

If something from those ships really did come ashore, while the lighthouse was close to the pier, there was no guarantee they'd head straight for it—it was more likely they'd stream into the village.

Shiller glanced upstairs. Batman was holding off the Joker, but the Joker was also holding off Batman. With the latter's inclination for chaos, he aimed to destroy more than just this small village. Once the ancient days returned, no one would escape.

As for matters concerning the village and beyond, someone influential had to step up to the plate. With Greed gone, regardless of the danger that came with Old Sirteck, Shiller had to figure out a way to approach him.

As to why he would bother to go to great lengths to save the world, Shiller might not have intervened if the Joker chose a different method of destruction. But Deep Divers were just too ugly for his taste; Shiller did not want to become some half-human, half-fish creature.

Shiller checked what he had on hand: a gun with a few bullets, night vision goggles, but the knife he had given to Batman. He needed to get a Cold Weapon.

He searched the first floor but couldn't find a knife or similar Cold Weapon. Instead, he found a crowbar, which was a rather handy item—of moderate length and weight, it felt very comfortable to wield.

Shiller went back to the small storeroom, ate something in haste to replenish his energy, turned off the night vision goggles for the moment, and judged the direction of the village by the way the dock faced. Then, he set off.

He wasn't worried that Batman would be confused by his departure. The wet footprints he left during his rounds here were enough for Batman to figure out what was going on.

Shiller pushed open the door of the lighthouse.